The Stranger in the Lifeboat

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www.ajpdf.comcontentment.Then Lilly died.She was only four years old. She’d been visiting Patrice’s mother, Doris,and that morning they’d gone to the beach. Doris, who suffered from heartissues, had taken a new medication at breakfast, not realizing it would makeher drowsy. In a beach chair, under the hot sun, she fell asleep. When sheblinked her eyes open, she saw her granddaughter facedown in the surf,motionless.Lilly was buried a week later. LeFleur and Patrice had been in a fog eversince. They stopped going out. They barely slept. They crawled through theirdays and fell into their pillows at night. Food lost its taste. Conversationfaded. A numbness draped over them, and they would stare for long stretchesat nothing in particular, until one would say, “What?” and the other wouldsay, “What?” and the other would say, “I didn’t say anything.”Four years passed. In time, to their neighbors and friends, it appeared as ifthe couple had reached an equilibrium. In truth, they’d become their ownprivate Montserrat, blown apart, existing in ashes. LeFleur shut the door toLilly’s room. He hadn’t entered it since. He grew withdrawn, and shook hishead whenever Patrice wanted to talk about what happened.Patrice found solace in her faith. She went to church often. She prayedevery day. She spoke of Lilly “being with God” and nodded tearfully whenher friends said Lilly was in a better place and never had to worry again.LeFleur could not accept that. He disavowed God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit,anything he’d been taught as a kid in church. No merciful god would take hischild that way. No Heaven needed his daughter so badly that, at four yearsold, she had to drown. Faith? What idiocy, he thought. The world to LeFleurbecame dark and irrational. He drank more. He smoked more. Few thingsmattered to him. Even the yellow house and the four-poster bed seemed stale.The power of misery is its long shadow. It darkens everything within view.But this orange raft and its hidden notebook? They were a jolt to thatmisery. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the idea that something—even afew pages of something—had endured a tragedy and crossed an ocean to findhim. It had survived. And witnessing survival can make us believe in ourown.He carefully separated the front cover from the first page. He saw densewriting. On the inside flap, there was a message scribbled in blue ink.
www.ajpdf.comTo whoever finds this—There is no one left. Forgive me my sins.I love you, Annabelle DeChapl—The rest was ripped away.
Page 2 and 3: www.ajpdf.comALSO BY MITCH ALBOMTue
Page 4 and 5: www.ajpdf.comContentsAlso by Mitch
Page 6 and 7: www.ajpdf.comOne
Page 8 and 9: www.ajpdf.comwoman from India, said
Page 10 and 11: www.ajpdf.com“When?”“Yesterda
Page 12 and 13: www.ajpdf.comretching. It is true,
Page 14 and 15: www.ajpdf.comSeaLambert throws up.
Page 16 and 17: www.ajpdf.comto whisper our theorie
Page 18 and 19: www.ajpdf.com“You want some?” h
Page 20 and 21: www.ajpdf.com“What?” Yannis sai
Page 22 and 23: www.ajpdf.comhave lost the connecti
Page 24 and 25: www.ajpdf.comLeFleur felt his pulse
Page 26 and 27: www.ajpdf.coma large table crashed
Page 28 and 29: www.ajpdf.comTwo
Page 30 and 31: www.ajpdf.comBut I instantly loved
Page 32 and 33: www.ajpdf.com—nothing. Then I tur
Page 34 and 35: www.ajpdf.comSeaDay six. Another st
Page 36 and 37: www.ajpdf.comNo, I would say, it is
Page 38 and 39: www.ajpdf.comLandLeFleur’s heart
Page 40 and 41: www.ajpdf.comwould take. Jason Lamb
Page 42 and 43: www.ajpdf.comThree
Page 46 and 47: www.ajpdf.comSeaOur eighth day in t
Page 48 and 49: www.ajpdf.comourselves. An invisibl
Page 50 and 51: www.ajpdf.comNewsANCHOR: As stunned
Page 52 and 53: www.ajpdf.comSeaDay nine, Annabelle
Page 54 and 55: www.ajpdf.comI felt his eyes on me.
Page 56 and 57: www.ajpdf.comFour
Page 58 and 59: www.ajpdf.comthem as lost souls who
Page 60 and 61: www.ajpdf.comSeaIt is dawn, Annabel
Page 62 and 63: www.ajpdf.comWhen she said that wor
Page 64 and 65: www.ajpdf.comabout Bernadette. Ther
Page 66 and 67: www.ajpdf.comlearn a few things, an
Page 68 and 69: www.ajpdf.comPhilippe scooted over
Page 70 and 71: www.ajpdf.comFive
Page 72 and 73: www.ajpdf.com“The rain could be a
Page 74 and 75: www.ajpdf.comLandLeFleur entered hi
Page 76 and 77: www.ajpdf.comSeaNevin is dead.Yeste
Page 78 and 79: www.ajpdf.comcreated this world, I
Page 80 and 81: www.ajpdf.comSeaIt is time I wrote
Page 82 and 83: www.ajpdf.comDobby had worked as a
Page 84 and 85: www.ajpdf.comLand“Jarty?” Patri
Page 86 and 87: www.ajpdf.com“Oh my god,” he mu
Page 88 and 89: www.ajpdf.comNewsANCHOR: Tonight, i
Page 90 and 91: www.ajpdf.comnothing for all of the
Page 92 and 93: www.ajpdf.comWhoever the man was, h
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www.ajpdf.comLandLeFleur chugged th
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www.ajpdf.comSeven
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www.ajpdf.comSeaMy dear Annabelle.
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www.ajpdf.comcalls and “Security!
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www.ajpdf.com“Dinoflagellates,”
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www.ajpdf.comEight
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www.ajpdf.comand his dark beard was
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www.ajpdf.comhappy. He said reporte
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www.ajpdf.comSeaWe saw an airplane
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www.ajpdf.comJesus and the children
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www.ajpdf.comSeaDeath.Two left now,
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www.ajpdf.comfatiguing. He had star
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www.ajpdf.comNine
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www.ajpdf.comwith him, and all the
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www.ajpdf.comheard Lambert slapping
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www.ajpdf.comShe looked down, then
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www.ajpdf.comLand“My name is Dobb
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www.ajpdf.comago were Irish.”“W
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www.ajpdf.comthe binoculars that Do
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www.ajpdf.comNewsANCHOR: Another ne
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www.ajpdf.com“Nineteen ninety-sev
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www.ajpdf.comEleven
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www.ajpdf.comemphasized the parts a
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www.ajpdf.comLandDobby put his hand
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www.ajpdf.comDobby lifted his gaze.
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www.ajpdf.comremember it. She died
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www.ajpdf.comTwelve
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www.ajpdf.comhoped Dobby was tellin
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www.ajpdf.comSeaMy Dear Annabelle.O
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www.ajpdf.comMy body melted. My bre
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www.ajpdf.comLandThere were more pa
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www.ajpdf.comThirteen
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www.ajpdf.comblinked my eyes agains
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www.ajpdf.comMy eyes opened slowly,
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www.ajpdf.comNewsANCHOR: We begin t
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www.ajpdf.comLandLeFleur and Dobby
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www.ajpdf.com“A lot of folks have
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www.ajpdf.comAcknowledgementsFirst,
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www.ajpdf.comAbout the AuthorMitch
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The Stranger in the Lifeboat

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